Those Who Walk Away: A Virago Modern Classic

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BY THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY, CAROL AND STRANGERS ON A TRAIN 'Highsmith is a damn fine writer' GUARDIAN 'No one has created psychological suspense more densely and deliciously satisfying' VOGUE 'The setting is Venice, the characterisation brilliant, the style spare and superb' DAILY MAIL The honeymoon is over; the bride dead by her own hand. Ray Garrett, the grieving husband, convinces the police in Rome of his innocence, but not his father-in-law, Ed Coleman, who shoots him at point-blank range and leaves him for dead. Ray survives and follows Coleman to Venice, where the two fall into an eerie game of cat-and-mouse - Coleman obsessed with vengeance and Ray determined to save his reputation, and himself. Those Who Walk Away simmers with violence and unease. As they switch between the roles of hunter and hunted, this tense psychological novel races towards a thrilling climax.

Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and moved to New York when she was six. In her senior year, she edited the college magazine, having decided at the age of sixteen to become a writer. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train (1950), was made into a classic film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. The Talented Mr Ripley (1955), introduced the fascinating anti-hero Tom Ripley, and was made into an Oscar-winning film in 1999 by Anthony Minghella. Highsmith died in Locarno, Switzerland, in February 1995. Her last novel, Small g: A Summer Idyll, was published posthumously, the same year.

The setting is Venice, the characterisation brilliant, the syle spare and superb - Daily Mail Illuminating - and always compelling - New York Times Highsmith keeps moving, darting in and out of our field of vision, making afterimages that will tremble - but stay - in our minds - New Yorker No one has created psychological suspense more densely and deliciously satisfying - Vogue